Ernst says it’s been an interesting start to congressional session

CLEAR LAKE — Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says it’s been an interesting first three months of the congressional session. 

She says, “There are a lot of extreme changes right now both with the administration and in Congress. It does make our work a little more difficult, I’ll be honest about that. We can still find bipartisanship, I hope that everyone continues to strive for that, but it is a much more difficult environment.”

Ernst says the infrastructure bill proposed by the White House seems to be unreasonable and not focused on infrastructure.   “Less than six percent of Biden’s proposal actually goes towards roads and waterways, so we really need to focus down, which is what Republicans have done.”

Ernst points to a bipartisan bill crafted  last year dealing with infrastructure.   “We’ve introduced a bill that is based on what we did in Environmental & Public Works in the last Congress. It was a bipartisan bill, and it passed out of our EPW committee in the Senate 21-0. So why we’re not starting with that package, I don’t understand, but we have a scaled-down version that actually focuses on roads, waterways, locks and dams, broadband, you name it, bridges. It’s really a good plan. We hope to get more Democrats on board with us.”

Ernst made her comments during a stop near Clear Lake on Tuesday.